The grave-mounds, or barrows, are, as a rule, of much less altitude, and of smaller dimensions, generally, than those of either of the preceding periods. In some districts they are found in extensive groups, frequently occupying elevated sites; at other times they are solitary, and frequently the elevation above the surrounding surface is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible except to the most practised eye. Fortunately the mounds and cemeteries are particularly rich in remains, and thus enable us to form a clearer idea of the habits, and manners, and lives of our Saxon forefathers than we can of their predecessors. In Kent, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight, Saxon graves abound on the Downs; and in Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Yorkshire, cemeteries of more or less extent and importance exist, with here and there a solitary barrow, or a group of barrows. Like their Roman predecessors the Anglo-Saxons, to some extent, took possession of, and buried in, the grave-mounds of the Ancient Britons, and it is not a very unusual occurrence to find overlying the primary deposit an interment of the Saxon period.
Fortunately an early Anglo-Saxon poem, recounting the adventures of the chieftain Beowulf, is preserved to us, and gives us a valuable and highly graphic and interesting description of the ceremonies attendant on his burial; the lighting of the funeral pyre, the burning of the body of the hero, the raising of the mound over his remains, and the articles placed beside him in his last home. Dying he
bæꝺ̣ þæꞇ ᵹe ᵹe-ƿoꞃhꞇon
æꝼꞇeꞃ ƿineꞅ ꝺæꝺū
in bǽl-ꞅꞇeꝺe
beoꞃh þone heán,
micelne anꝺ mæꞃne.—
Which is translated:—
“he bad that ye should make,
according to the deeds of your friend,
on the place of the funeral pyle,
the lofty barrow
large and famous.”
His request was carried out, the funeral pile raised, and every preparation befitting his deeds was made. The pile was—
“hung round with helmets,
with boards of war,[49]
and with bright byrnies,[50]
as he had requested.
Then the heroes, weeping,
laid down in the midst
the famous chieftain,
their dear lord.
Then began on the hill,
the warriors, to awake
the mightiest of funeral fires;
the wood-smoke rose aloft
dark from the fire;
noisily it went
mingled with weeping.”
The body of the hero having been consumed by the wood-fire, in the midst of weeping friends, the people began to raise the barrow over his ashes. This mound—
“was high and broad,
by the sailors over the waves
to be seen afar.
And they built up
during ten days
the beacon of the war-renowned.
They surrounded it with a wall
in the most honourable manner
that wise men
could desire.
They put into the mound
rings and bright gems,
all such ornaments
as before from the hoard
the fierce-minded men
had taken;
they suffered the earth to hold
the treasure of warriors,
gold on the earth,
where it yet remains
as useless to men
as it was of old.”
When the burial was simply by inhumation, the body appears usually to have been placed in a shallow grave, over which the mound was raised. The graves were of rectangular form, and of various depths. On the floor of the grave or pit the body was laid flat on its back, the arms straight down by its sides, the hands resting on the pelvis, and the feet close together. It was buried in full dress, and surrounded by a number of articles pertaining to the deceased—both personal ornaments, domestic instruments and vessels, and other things—and that had been used or valued by him or her. Sometimes the body was enclosed in a wooden chest or coffin before being placed in the grave. The grave, in either of these cases, was then filled in—usually with a tempered or “puddled” earth, which formed a close and extremely compact mass—and the mound raised over it. This mound or hillock was called a hlœw, or a beorh, beorgh, or bearw, from the first of which the name now commonly used, low, is derived, and from the last the equally common name barrow originates.